Of course. Like any sport or physical activity, there’s always a chance to get banged up or injured. At SBG, we have a saying that perfectly sums up our training methodology: ‘Upgrade the software without damaging the hardware.’ In other words, training hard is great, but training rough is stupid. Creating a safe training environment is one of our Core Values, and we pride ourselves on having an extremely low injury rate. In addition, our Coaches will work to ensure that you are paired up with appropriate training partners, especially for our Women Tribe. We understand that sometimes you may be a small female and the only other partner that is available is a large 200lb male… there is really no reason to have these kind of pairs for drilling/training, and some drills may not be possible because of the size discrepancy – so we will step in and swap teammates around so that everyone can SAFELY train and still have a great class. We take every precaution to make sure our students leave class feeling AWESOME, and not hurt.

Do you want to know the biggest determinant in staying healthy and preventing injuries? That would be YOU! If you feel uncomfortable in a training situation – say something (either nicely to your training partner, or to your coach). It’s not rude to let someone know that you are smaller and don’t feel comfortable training with a larger teammate, especially if someone is training out of control. If you come into class with the mindset of training smooth and getting better, and not winning every minute of every practice like it’s the world championships, then you will do just fine.